Process of mechanically simulating handmade brick



u 30, 936. J. R. CLAR v 2,0 6,2 5

PROCESS OF MECHANICALLY SIMULATING HANDMADE BRICK Original Filed July 50, 1932 Patented June 30, 1936 PATENT or FlC-E PROCESS OF MECHANICALLY .SIMULATING HANDMADE BRICK 7 John RiClarkjBattery Park, Md.

Application July '30, '1932, Serial No. 626,81 Renewed April 16, 1935 4 Claims. (Cl. 25-1) -"I'his invention relates in generalto ceramics, and more particularly has reference to a method of mechanically simulating'handmade brick.

Originally, bricks of the type used inbuilding 5 constructionwere made by hand. This was accomplished by pouring soft 'mud into. wooden molds. In order to prevent the bricks thus formed from adhering tothe walls of-the molds, the molds were wetted and-sanded prior to -the introduction of the soft clay therein. In this manner, after the formation of, the bricks-in the molds, the same were easily dischargeable therefrom without adhering to the molds.

The bricks made by hand inaccordance with 15 this original process were. possessed' of certain distinctive characteristics nowa'desira ble, butat the present time, by reason of thequantity production now essential, it is uneconomical to produce bricks by this method. It has long been 20 sought to produce a machine-made brick having the characteristicsio-f a hand-'molded brick, but heretofore this has never beeniaccomplisheds A hand molded brick, made of soft clay is char-- acterized by folds in the surface thereof-"and 1a sanded finish. This last, the-sanded finish, is the most predominant characteristic. 'The fold appears as the result ofrelatively'soft clay'bein'g poured into the mold sons to overlap. -As no great pressure was applied in the hand mold: proc 3 ess;this pouring of the clay the molds resulted in the fold appearance on the surface. The sand-- ed appearance, as enem stated, was. obtained in the' hand process by the sand clinging to the wetted walls ofthe molds,- becomingembedded in 35 the surface of the brick in the pouring'of the clay therein. 1

There is a great demand for-handmade :brick inthe present state "of architectural trend by reason ofthe artistidcharacter of the same. As 40 .already pointed out, however, it has heretofore been in'ipossible to produce brick of this character, except by the old and uneconomi'cal methocl described.

As suggested in the previous description, the 45 desirable sanded'appearance of handmade brick is the resultof the sand clinging to the'walls of the'we'tted mold b'ecoming embedded in the surface of the brick formed bythe pouring of soft clay in the molds. It is due to the fact that the .50 sand inhandmade brick is embedded in the sur face thereof, that the same adheres thereto so as to pres'nt a permanent s'andedsurface:

As already stated; various 5 efforts have "been made T to producea" machine' made brick having 55 the surface characteristics of handmade brick; all

of which have uniformly been previously unsuccessful. 7

Among the expedients. which havebeeniattemp-ted has been thewetting of a brick immediately after its formationin a machine, and the 5 application of sand on the wetted surfaces. 'With the subsequent drying operation ina kiln, however, the sand thus applied has readily Ibr-ushed off the finished brickso as to negative theeffectiveness of such a process. All other prior at- 10 tempts have likewise proved ineffective. Also, these operations have been carried out on brick produced from machines vvhere'the bricks are cut from bars of clay so that from the :outset the duplication of the secondary or folded characl5 teristic of handmade brickhas recognizably been Without possibility of achievement. I

Handmade bricks wereiproduced by what is known as a soft mold process. "Machine-made bricks on the other hand, produced in accordance with the present practices, are made by :what has become to be known as' a istiff or dry mud process, that is, in contradistinction to the :thin mix employed in the manufacture ofhandmade bricks, a comparatively dry clay is, practically uniformly employed in machine pr'ocessuof producing brick. The stiif dry mud process has come into "general use on machines for the reason that a 'greatpressure ismade 1. use of, thusallowing a to be usedwith the advantage of considerably shortening the subsequent drying and baking of brick in the kilnin view of the considerably loweredjmoisture content. This :is expressed to bring'out the fact that by reason of the tremendous pressures employed with the else .35

of a comparatively dry or stiifmix, as is almost universally practiced in the making of brick at this time; and with the cutting-of the brick from bars thus produced, it is impossible to obtain the fold effect described'as a characteristic of hand 40 brick Where an mud is employed. -"'I-hus,: although it may be found that machine-made brick may be sanded so as to simulate handmade brick in this respect,it is entirely impossible to obtain the other character, namely, the feature of folds on the-surface of the brick. I

'An object of this invention is to provide a process' for imparting a sanded finish toibricksafter formation thereof. 7 I r Another objector this invention is toprovide aprocess for imparting a sanded finish toma- .chine-madebrick. I r

Still another'objectofthis: invention is to provide a'pro'cess for impartingLa-rfolded. surface :to

machine-made brick, previously characteristic solely of handmade brick.

A further object of this invention is to provide a process of producing. machine-made brick having sanded and folded surfaces previously characteristic solely of handmade brick.

With these and other objects in view which may be incident to my improvements, the invention consists in the parts and combinations to be hereinafter set forth and claimed, with the understanding that the several necessary. elements comprising my invention'may be varied in construction, proportions and arrangement, without departing from:the spirit and scope of the appended claims. f

In the accompanying drawing, Q

Figure 1 isa side view, partially in'section, of a machine for carrying out my process of making bricks, and V 7 Figurezis a perspective view of a brick made bysuch process. V T

According to the present-practice of manufacturing brick, two general processes are employed, both making use of dry orstiif mud. The method jmost'generally followedis the forming of bars of mud under pressure from which individual bricks I are cut.

The less generally usedmethod is the formation of bricks in individual molds on a wheel bypressing of the mud therein by an adjacent wheel surface.

In the manufacture of bricks by my present "invention: wherein I produce a machine-made brick having the surface characteristics of'a handmade'brick, already described in detail, I "prefer the use of the latter method of initially forming the brick. Inthe first process, where the bricks are cut from a bar, it is manifestthat all'faces are necessarily smooth; It is thus impossible to achieve the desirable folded effect 'on the surface which I have described, although brick'manufactured by this method may have a V sanded finish imparted thereto in accordance with the most essential feature of my invention to be hereinafter set forth in detail.

In the manufacture of brick, with theuse of the wheel apparatus, I findghowever, that with "certain modifications therein, I am able to producea brick'having the surfaces normally adapted to be exposed after it has been'laid, with the desirable fold so as to simulate a handmade brick in this respect. V V

In the present wheel devices, dies are mounted on one wheel corresponding to the number of molds provided in the other wheel for pressing the mud in the molds to form the brick.v An apparatus of thischaracter is unsatisfactory for the reasonthat there is a progressive change in the center. ofpressure with the counter-revolution of the wheels, which tends to crack or destroy the mud pressediinto eachindividual mold so as to produce an unsatisfactory brick. If a wheel 7 with merelya flat periphery is substituted for the wheel carrying the dies for operating against the mold wheel, the same disadvantagenever- .theless obtains, although to a lesser degree.

' I have found that a, wheel apparatus willfunction efficiently, and eliminate this foregoing disadvantage by employing a; machine such as is shown in Figure 1, having a'pressurewheel l with a fiat periphery 2 spaced from rather than juxtaposed against the mold wheel 3. In a machine of thischaracter, the mud may be fed between the wheels in the usual manner for pressing into. themolds, and the excess of mudiproject ing from each mold, after passing from the pres- .tained on an apparatusof this character by reguv bricks.

'to merely sprinkle sand on the brick after the subjecting the newly formedbrick to a sand blast sure wheel, existing by reason of the spacing of the wheels, cut off flush with the top edges of the mold bya knife 5. The excess clay is received in a chute 6, and may be used again. By spacing the wheels in the manner described, the undesirable results accompanying the use of dies on the pressure wheel or the juxtaposition of'the wheel against the mold wheel, are not only elimi-' nated but I find that inithis manner I am able' to producea brick having the desirable folded surfaces, except the outer surfaces projecting from the mold which is, as -I stated, cut off. I,

find that this folded effect may be markedly oblating the body of the mix. 'For the most effec- J tive results, although stiff mud is employed, I find it desirable to use a mixture with a'slightly' higher moisture content than is ordinarily practiced in the usual manufacture of machine-made In carryingout my invention, I Send the bricks formed by either of the methods described, or any i other method, immediately after formation of the same when the moisture content is at the highest, or when .the ,newly formed bricks are mostrecepthereof. V 7 7, It will be appreciated that it is not expedient formation of the same, as in a dry or stiff mud process the bricks are not sufficiently moistv for 1 the sand to cling thereto. I have also found that even though the bricks may be Wetted'after the formation ofthe same, and that even though sand sprinkled thereon will adhere thereto by reason of the moisture of the surfaces, a brick having a sanded surface can nevertheless not be produced for the reason that after the subsequent heat treatment the sand thus applied will drop off. I propose to embed particlesofsandin the surface of the brick so as to provide for an actual physical union which will resultin a permanent sand finish on the brick. I accomplish this by operation. I This may be effected by directing nozzles from a suitable sand blast machine-at the surface whichit is desired to sand. Preferably,

1 the sand blastmachine 1 is located above the traveling belt 8 which receives the bricksfrom the mold wheel. I findthat the most effective results may be obtained by spacing the nozzles 9 approximately a foot from the brick surfaces, and at an angle of approximately forty-five degrees with respect thereto; also, -.the nozzles should be directed at the nearest edge of "the brick surface which itisdesired to sand. The I pressures used in ordinarily building cleaning apparatus with similar machines haveibeenifound to be satisfactory, although .it may, of course, how found desirable to vary the pressure; also, the

invention is, of course, in no wise limited to the specific spacing or directing of the nozzles from the brick. I r

In thus sand blasting theflbrick, the particles are embedded in' the surfaces thereof so. that ,a permanent union is effected, and afterthe sub;-

sequent heat treatmentof the brick'there is pro:

duced abrick with a permanent sand'finish have ing the same sanded appearance as ahandmade brick. Such a brick, when finished ,is illustrated in Figure 2, having. the sandedappearance and folds l0, typical of a handmade brick.

It is manifest that in carrying out'my process, ,the brick may be produced with only selected 7 surfaces sanded so that in distinction from hand made brick having all the surfaces in contact with the mold sanded, in my novel process a brick may be produced having only certain surfaces sanded, if this should be found desirable. Also, it will be apparent that, if deemed desirable, ordinary machine made brick may be manufactured in different colors or varieties of colors on the same brick, produced by blasting the same with different colored sand, or material for imparting any characteristic finish embedded there in, and thus remarkable architectural effects in ordinary bricks achieved, without the use of special clays or the necessity of coloring the clay. It naturally follows that clay of undesirable color may be used in the manufacture of the brick, and the desirable coloring imparted thereto by this process, or coloring materials other than sand, such as pigments, or ground glass, employed in the manufacture of brick or other ceramics, such as tile.

It will be understood from the foregoing that the manufacture of bricks by the wheel method described wherein I find it possible to reproduce the folds on the surface appearing in handmade brick, with the use of my sanding process I am able to practically simulate a handmade brick by machine methods so as to very substantially reduce the costs of such bricks which are now in great demand for architectural purposes. With the use of my sand process, I am able to effectively sand any type of machine made brick so as to impart this primary characteristic of handmade brick thereto. It will also be appreciated that there is produced a more substantial brick than a handmade brick by reason of the pres-' sures under which it is possible to subject a brick in the making in a machine process.

While I have described my preferred method of sanding machine made bricks after the formation of the same by directing a sand blast thereon, it will be apparent that any other method of embedding sand in the surfaces of newly formed brick is clearly within the scope of my invention. Also, it will be clearly understood that my invention is not limited to brick alone, but may be advantageously adapted to other ceramics, for example, tile, in the formation thereof.

There is accomplished by this invention, a

method of simulating a handmade brick respecting the folded and sanded surface characteristics of the same by the machine methods followed in the manufacture of ordinary brick, and a novel sanding process wherein the sanded surface of a handmade brick may be simulated in the manufacture of ordinary brick by any present method; this latter process also being adapted to provide for sanding of selected surfaces of ceramics generally, or for sanding and coloring thereof.

While I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of my invention, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself to the precise details of construction herein set forth, by way of illustration, as it is apparent that many changes and variations may be made therein, by those skilled in the art, without departing from the spirit of the invention, or exceeding the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A process of mechanically simulating a handmade brick comprising mechanically molding a brick to present folds in the surfaces there'- of like a handmade brick, and embedding sand in the surfaces thus formed to correspond to the sand appearing in the surfaces of a handmade brick.

2. A process of mechanically simulating a handmade brick comprising mechanically shaping a brick to present irregularities in the sur-. face thereof simulating the surface characteristics of a handmade brick, and embedding sand in the surfaces thus formed to correspond to the sand appearing in the surfaces of a handmade brick.

3. A process of mechanically simulating handmade brick comprising mechanically molding a brick to present a fold appearance in the surfaces thereof like a handmade brick.

4. A method of mechanically forming brick to simulate handmade brick, comprising introducing mud into a mold in excess of the capacity of said mold, said mud being of an excess moisture content, rotating the mold and exerting pressure rotatively to the mud, cutting the excess mud flush with the free side of the mold, removing the product from the mold, and embedding sand in the surface of the product.

JOHN R. CLARK. 

